"As the happy couple's love entwines against a sunset as livid orange as any in Gone with the Wind, there will not be a dry eye in the house. But possibly not for the reasons the makers suppose," Bates wrote.

The London Evening Standard's Richard Godwin dryly said there were a few good things about the production.

"It is recognisably a film, in that it takes place on a screen. Events run in a forward direction."

Reuters' Michael Holden blogged that the film unashamedly targets an American audience and is more like a Disney movie than an accurate narrative of the couple's relationship.

"Romantic royal fans may love it - but I suspect historians, and those who are not keen on saccharine-coated Hollywood movies, will happily give it a miss," Holden wrote.

The Sun reports people who watched the film online branded it the "naffest ever made" and "God awful".

One of two reviewers on amazon.com predicts the DVD will soon be on sale for 50 pence.

"This is going to be so mind-bogglingly bad that it is probably going to be a superb piece of comedy."